Course description

"Tone of voice", "speech melody", "singsong voice" - these phrases refer to prosody, an aspect of language which is rarely investigated in detail, but which can make all the difference between being understood and accepted in a foreign language (or indeed one's own) and being regarded as strange or alien. The main aim of this class is to make students thoroughly conversant with the scientific analysis of English prosody: intonation (speech melody), accentuation, and rhythm (the timing of speech). The forms and functions of prosody are very varied, and in order to achieve the goals of the class a number of methods will be combined in different phases:

1. Introduction to prosodic transcription
2. The phonetic correlates of prosody
   1. theory: articulatory, auditory and acoustic models of prosody
   2. experimental techniques and practical analysis with multimedia software
3. The phonology of prosody:
   1. metrical phonology
   2. autoprosodic patterns
4. Functions of prosody in dialogue:
   1. "tonality": the division of utterances
   2. "tonicity": principles of accent and focus assignment
   3. "tone": signalling utterance type in dialogue contexts
5. Prosodic analysis of dialogues:
   1. dialogue transcription
   2. analysis of speech acts and turns

Term papers will involve the prosodic description of a recording of a selected variety of English according to some of the criteria described in class.

Reading: see bibliography.